Beyond The Call: Why Some of Your Team Go the Extra Mile and Others Don't Show

7.

TEAM TALK

‘I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.’

Mia Hamm

Each year, UK retail giant Sainsbury’s holds an event for around 5000 of its staff. I have been fortunate enough to work at the event on a number of occasions and each time I have been impressed by how the sense of team filters through the various areas of the business. In some way or another every individual attending considers themselves part of a team. Be that their small team within a store, the store as a whole, their colleague forum or, most commonly, the organization generally.

Throughout the year the senior leadership team works hard to maximize engagement levels amongst its 150,000 employees. Initiatives designed to enhance teamwork are embraced by the individual stores and then celebrated at their annual event. To call it an event is, in fact, somewhat misleading. In many ways this gathering together of colleagues from around the UK is an interactive show with delegates moving from one experience to another.

In 2011, for example, there was an area the size of three football pitches displaying cheeses, cakes, biscuits, drinks, games, decorations and all of the other products expected for Christmas. There was a catwalk where Gok Wan, the UK TV presenter of How to Look Good Naked, showcased his new fashion line commissioned by the business. The 50 models? All volunteer Sainsbury’s employees.

Each of the ...